Fat Man on a Fat Bike in Doha

Ever since I can remember I have loved cycling, I went through a spell in my life in which even though I still loved cycling, my bike seemed to be a mere ornament in our cluttered garage!

My Love for Cycling

My love of cycling and bikes has been quite varied. I have had racing bikes, mountain bikes and motorbikes (I loved my ZX9 Ninja). As I grow older or more “mature” (sort of), I have once again rediscovered my deep love of cycling, and I mean human propelled as opposed to a nice big engine. As a child, I used to cycle miles and miles, at one point I even had my bike confiscated by my parents as I had been seen riding like a lunatic (this was very true too). I restarted my cycling in Bulgaria. I used to love going for nice rides around all the various parks. Starting in Lozenets, across South Park, along Vitosha Boulevard, past the city centre, the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexander Nevski Cathedral and down to Doctors Gardens, that was the easy bit. The harder bit was cycling up to Eagle’s Brigdge and across Borisova Gradina, eventually ending up by the TV tower and then back home. In Spain, things were a bit different. My beloved mountain bike of course came along with us. Riding out from Monda along the road to Guaro, then back (except for the time I had a blow out on the way home without a spare inner tube and had to walk back several KM). Geographically, Spain was very different to the nice parks and avenues I used to enjoy in Bulgaria.Cycling in Doha

Katja Busy Cleaning Her Bike

Ever since the weather has cooled down to humanly bearable temperatures, I am cycling more and more.Around where we are there aren’t any green parks and tree-lined avenues but that’s what I have a big fat bike for! Driving here at the best of times is; shall we say; not what we may be used to in other parts of the world, if you own a big SUV then you stand a chance, if you drive a small car then you have to pander to bigger road users. Of course, cycles do come very, very, very low in the packing order, I think skateboards are perhaps below cyclists! Hence why I tend to stick to either riding around the compound or going out on Friday’s when people are off work. There are a number of parks and places where we could go, but I haven’t bought a bike rack (yet) so I am restricted to areas around here. I must admit, I LOVE my bike rides around here. especially the ones as the sun goes down. There’s something magical about sunsets in this place It is truly spectacular. The rough terrain is no issue for the bike and its big fat tyres, the big fat bloke pedaling, that’s a different story!
I sincerely hope that my love for cycling rubs off on little Katja, Cathy is sort of take it or leave it (even though in England we used to love cycling along the tow-paths along the Shropshire Union Canal, which we did on a regular basis). I am really looking forward to going along on one of Doha Joy Rides runs, there’s one planned for later on in the month, it will be nice to meet people who enjoy cycling too, it will be a good chance for little Katja to come and hopefully if our shipment arrives as planned (and the bike is still in one piece) Cathy will come along too!